Trademarks, copyright, etc. (was re:...)
Robert Craig (rcraig@LIBRARY.CARLETON.CA)
Wed, 22 Jun 1994 10:28:38 EDT
> First of all, there's no such thing as the "Fidonet patch", second of all
> the "Scouter Echo Computer Patch" was issued by Dave Tracewell in 1991
My apologies on the terminology here, my understanding was that the
Scouter and Scouting Echo were part of the Fidonet Backbone...maybe
Byron can help here!!!
> (I worked on the original design, and still have at least 5), and the 1992
> edition was issued by Byron Hynes (of which I still haven't seen my set of
> 10... hint, hint).
Have you asked Byron directly about that....communication with a person
directly tends to work best! :)
>
> ===>> Who/what/where did you obtain permission to "be" the holder of the
> internet? As well, it may be difficult to trademark items (such as the word
> Scout, the world Logo) that are already "copyrighted".
>
> The work "scout" is not copyrighted worldwide, nor in the USA... you cannot
> copyright a "word". You CAN trademark a unique word or phrase, or usage of
> same however. The generic flourdelis (sp?) symbol used by Scouting and
> Guiding in many countries is NOT copyrighted, and there are actuallt three
> common designs for it.
Well, I seem to have a problem with terminology....sorry. However, after
looking at my Communication Committee Notes and talking to John Rietveld,
Executive Director, Communications, Scouts Canada, I have some interesting
information:
The World Scouting Logo is copyrighted, in fact, that specific Fleur-de-Leis
(or northpoint as it actually is) is copyrighted through the World Bureau.
Any member Organization of WOSM is designated to grant permission for its use.
IE Scouts Canada can give permission for me to use the World Scouting Logo.
As a psuedo fund-raiser, the World Bureau charges a small fee (5 cents) each
time the logo is used "Royalties!". The Scouts Canada Logo, as the BSA logo
and the logo's of many Scouting organizations are copyrighted (1976 for
Scouts Canada). The words, badges, images and designs used in Scouting in
Canada are protected by Canadian Law. For example, if a church group decided
to create a group or even use the name (for example) Scouts, Scouts Canada
could prove that the name is associated with Scouting and "we had it first!".
This was the case with International Harvester who produced a vehicle called
"The Scout". The case was lost as IH responded that they implied that you
could scout around in this vehicle. (oh well!)
John informed me that granting permission to use the word Scout, Scouter, etc.
(names affiliated with Scouting) would still probably have to obtain
permission through their National Scouting Body: BSA, Scouts Canada, etc.
John gave the name of the person at the BSA to talk to I have forgotten it.
oh well
Later,
Bob
--
Robert Craig | Be Prepared.....For Life!
Carleton University Library | Preparing them for life is what
Ottawa, Canada | Scouting is all about.
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